Heavy Armor is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim dedicated to using heavy armor sets and individual items. Like other skills in Skyrim, Heavy Armor also consists of 8 Perks, each needing to be unlocked after reaching a certain level and having a certain amount of perk points. The perks of Heavy Armor benefit players’ use of heavy armor in their respective ways. Some increase armor rating, some reduce damage taken on certain conditions (falling, attack from behind, stagger), and some even reduce the weight of the heavy armor worn. If your playstyle is close combat and you wish to attack enemies head-on, it is necessary to have your Heavy Armor skill maxed out to avail yourself of all the perk benefits in combat.
Although heavy armor grants an armor rating to your character’s overall stats, there is also an option to apply enchantments that players can benefit from. Enchantments can be of combat, movement, health, stamina, and gaining more experience points to level up your skill faster.
In this article, we will discuss the different ways you can level up your Heavy Armor skill faster.
Let Enemies Hit You, Easiest Method to Level Heavy Armor
Dwell into combat with Heavy Armor on your character and gain experience for your Heavy Armor skill. For every hit you take, you will gain some skill exp, and simultaneously, for every enemy taken down, you will gain some skill exp. The tougher the enemy, the more skill experience you will gain. Use regenerating health potions and enchantments to help you survive tougher enemies.
Using a set of Heavy Armor in battle will grant you more skill exp, so make sure to equip any heavy armor you have on you. Even if you let lower-level enemies hit you, you will still gain some heavy armor skill XP, so if you don’t want to fight tougher enemies, you can allow lower-level enemies to hit you for some time while you do something else.
Class selection can give an initial Heavy Armor boost
Character creation is something most players overlook in Skyrim. They believe it isn’t much to look into and choose whatever race they find fitting. But that is not the case, as Orc and Imperial races grant +10 and +5 initial skill bonuses to Heavy Armor, respectively, in comparison to any other race in the game.
Use Trainers
Trainers are available in Skyrim that help you in gaining certain skill experience. With the help of these trainers, you level up faster. Every trainer has their own proficiency, which helps the player to identify what is the maximum level achievable by training under a specific trainer. Adept trainers train up to level 50, Expert trainers can train to level 75, and Master trainers can train up to level 90. For every character level you gain through XP, you are allowed to gain 5 skill levels of any skill. Since the training won’t be free, you can use a trick to save your gold and still level up the Heavy Armor Skill.
First, you will have to go to any of the trainers in Heavy Armor skill. It is preferred to go to Farkas as he is a Master trainer and can become a companion, and that can be used to your advantage. Head on over to Whiterun, where you will be able to meet Farkas. Before you begin your training, complete The Companions quests. This will allow Farkas to be available to become a follower of the Dragonborn. Complete the quests and make Farkas your follower.
You will then ask Farkas to train you in Heavy Armor, and for the training, a fixed amount of gold has to be given. Level up your Heavy Armor by 5 skill levels, and before you go on to increase your character level so that you can come back to gain more heavy armor skill levels, check the inventory of Farkas.
As he is now your follower, you can open his inventory and take whatever is available inside. You will find the gold you had paid for training in his inventory. Simply take all the gold back and return once you level up your character to level your skill by 5 levels again. You can repeat this process until you reach level 90.
Skill Books
Skill Books in Skyrim are another quick source of gaining skill levels. Although the number of books per skill is very low (5), they can still come in handy to level up faster and reach a specific perk of desire. The 5 Skill Books of Heavy Armor are:
- Chimarvamidium
- Hallgerd’s Tale
- 2920, MidYear, v6
- The Knights of the Nine
- Orsinium and the Others
Use the Giants with easy Difficulty
As you know by now, getting hit by enemies while wearing your Heavy Armor can aid in increasing your skill level. Here is a quick way to use giants as a source to gain Heavy Armor skill exp quickly in Skyrim:
Gather your Health potions, Regenerating health potions and enchantments, and head on over to Secunda’s Kiss. Here, you will come across 1 or 2 giants depending on the time of the day. Be sure to lower the difficulty of the game, or else you might die in 2 to 4 hits. The trick here is to get hit as much as possible and regenerate health without dying. For each hit, you gain a good amount of skill XP. If you have time to kill, this little trick is highly recommended and easy to do.
